Triathlon Training – Week 1 of Figuring Things Out

I was trying to come up with a clever little title for this particular phase of my training and goal setting. I have nothing so far on this early Sunday morning with no flash drive that contains everything for life. Yeah, I know that will say, “You should have backed it up!”. I did, but my hard drive on my computer crashed so I lost the back up as well. I am praying to every god in every religion that it will show up, but things are not looking very good right now.

Anyways, here is a recap of my training for the week. This was the intended training plan.

• Run 5 miles – Knocked this run out. Ran with Mr. Uhde and we ran 5.5 miles in 44 minutes for a 8:00/mile pace. Good start to the week. Nice to run with another person and get outside before all the cold weather hits.
• TRX Core or Burpee Pushups – I did not get this workout in. Plan to get this done in week 2.
  

• Swim – 1000 yards (20 laps/ 40 lengths) – This was too lofty of a goal for me. I have never swam laps before in my life. All I have ever done was just casual swimming. I ended up only swimming 550 yards because I realized that I needed to go home, study up on some drills and techniques and not waste my time. I was working 5x harder than everyone else and going 3x as slow. Too much drag, breathing was a mess, splashing everywhere. Not good, but a good wake up call that I need to work on this aspect and there is plenty of time to do so.
• Lift – Circuit training – sets of 15 – we did this prior to swimming. Good little workout. Did not record weights. Will do so this week.
• 2 x 15
• Tri Extensions
• Tri Pushdowns
• Bi Curls
• Reverse Flies
• Lower Back Extensions
• 3 x 15
• Lat Pulldowns 
• Rows

 Wednesday

• Run – 30 minutes – Did not run for 30 minutes. I ran 1 mile and then stopped as I became light headed. I did not eat breakfast this morning and it caught up to me because I was no properly fueled. Legs were dead from the bike and disappointed I did not run longer. No need to push too hard this early into training.
  
• Bike – 30 minutes- Rode one of the stationary bikes at the YMCA. It killed my knees. I also realized that I need to work on this aspect as well. Legs were burning and I only went 8 miles in 29 minutes. Need to work on leg strength and endurance.
  

• Swim – 1000 yards – I worked in some beginner swimming drills and tried to work on some technique that I read about and watched online. I swam the 100 yards in 30 minutes time total from when I entered until I got out. Not able to really swim more than a down and back without stopping yet, but I am still learning. I incorporated some drills where I just used my legs, swam using only one arm, etc. Seemed to help. I just need to learn to relax, breath, and find a rhythm. Swimming kicks my butt. I am dead the rest of the day.
  

• Bike – 30 minutes or 10 miles
• Lift – Circuit Training – sets of 12 – Alright.  I need more work after struggling on pull up pyramid.
  We started with the following
• 20 Wide grip push up
• 20 regular
• 20 tri pushup
• 250 abs of choice
• 1-10 pull up pyramid. I was only able to go up to 6 and back down. I was dead and just not strong enough to make it up to 10. Will go for 7 this week.

• Long Run – 10 miles – I tried a new course this Sunday. It contained so many hills it was ridiculous! I felt good running. Quite tired now and will have to readjust my workout schedule for the week because I am not sure about running 5 miles tomorrow. I ended up running 9 miles in 1:16 giving me a 8:32 mile pace. The hills on miles 5-9 really took a toll on my legs, but glad to see I can still manage to run this far.

Overall, I am happy with this first week of experimenting with multi-sports. I was not able to achieve everything on this workout plan for the first week. Am I upset? Not really because I had not idea how to gauge a good starting point. I have some tough challenges ahead of me, but I know that I can achieve them if I just keep staying positive, making goals, and putting together a plan down on paper. I hope you are achieving your goals. If not, what are you waiting for? Write down one goal and put together a plan. Now on to week 2. I plan on trying to do the same workout again but complete everything and continue to make some improvements.